After a century of worship, I became the ancestor of the tribe.

Chapter 41 Five Hundred Cracked Stones, the First Bumper Harvest After the Disaster (Please Read On)
Huo Tang hadn't expected that so much would have changed within the clan in just two months since he left.

Outside the village, terraced fields are lush and green, and man-made streams meander through the mountains.

On the mountain, medicinal herb gardens, adapted to local conditions, are beginning to take shape.

The children in the tribe chased and played.

The shouts echoed loudly from the training ground next to the fishpond.

Two clansmen were clashing on a high platform next to the training ground.

This is the martial arts arena.

Arguments are inevitable when members of the clan practice martial arts. When disputes arise, they go to the martial arts stage to resolve them by defeat.

Any private fights discovered will be severely punished according to the newly established clan rules.

In the houses and courtyards, some clansmen were practicing Kui Niu boxing in their spare time, clearly not giving up their martial arts training.

Outside the ancestral temple, the steps were covered with straw mushrooms, herbs, and other items drying in the sun.

Our ancestors watched the food being dried, so we felt reassured about what we ate.

As for the Mountain-Splitting Kui of the Volcano Riders, it was captured deep in the mountains.

Nine heads were caught in total; I heard the naughty ones have already been eaten.

The remaining four are very well-behaved.

In a short period of time, three subcategories—farming, domestication, and cultivation of medicinal herbs—were initially established.

Is this a tribe after the plague?

It's no wonder that Shi Fu and his group were shocked outside the clan, and even the clan leader was shocked.

He suddenly realized that the clan could function without him as its leader...

……

Upon arriving at the stone platform outside the ancestral temple, Huotang couldn't help but stop and look back once again.

When Shen Can came out, he saw Huo Tang staring blankly.

"Shouldn't the clan leader rest for a few more days?"

Upon hearing this, Huotang immediately came to his senses. "Ah Can, of all the clan leaders, I am the only one who has traveled more than three thousand miles. What I saw on this trip was incredibly shocking, and I have been unable to calm my mind ever since."

He recounted his experience of going out, with a hint of lingering fear.

"I feel it might have been done by the Lingyu tribe. We don't know any other tribes that could be so powerful as to ignore the flood."

"Big ships seize people, strange fish pull boats, but by establishing our clan deep in the mountains, we have escaped disaster."

"After hearing about this, I think we still need to have someone specifically go out to investigate, so that at least we can detect danger in advance and come back to report. If we can't win, we can still run away."

Shen Can nodded. "Establishing an effective communication system is essential. If we go out and lose contact for many days, panic will break out within the clan."

Regarding intelligence gathering, he had previously considered breeding birds, but unfortunately, he only managed to raise a few Mountain-Splitting Kui.

For a company determined to expand outwards, it must understand the external situation in order to achieve its goals and avoid misfortune.

"The clan has never stopped training its members, and now the number of warriors at the Rock Splitting Realm is almost over five hundred, which is enough for us to send people out to investigate."

"so much?"

Huotang was startled.

But Shen Can didn't think it was too much.

Since the plague, they have been eating beast meat regardless of the losses, and in the past two months they have also had diluted third-tier beast blood.

This isn't a promotion to godhood. If you can't break through the power of the Desolate Realm, you might as well give up on martial arts altogether.

"Is there enough food?"

After the initial surprise, Huotang considered the problem.

Martial artists expend a lot of energy, so they naturally eat a lot. Normally, it would be impossible to support so many martial artists.

"The wheat and millet in the reclaimed fields after the disaster are growing very well, and the number of wild animals in the mountains and forests is increasing, so there is not much problem in maintaining daily consumption."

Before any new tribes are formed in the vicinity, they should thoroughly understand the surrounding environment, draw maps, and bring large areas under the tribe's control.

Just like Shanghuang, it can travel three thousand miles at any time.

During the reconnaissance, they could also capture some young wild beasts and birds to tame, thus compensating for the tribe's lack of resources for travel and intelligence gathering.

Shen Can thought for a moment and then added, "We also need to find mineral veins. Right now, the weapons of the warriors in our clan are too poor. Without mineral veins, we have no way to make more weapons."

"Alright, let's learn from Shanghuang and first understand the terrain and topography of the surrounding area within a radius of three thousand li."

Upon hearing the name Shanghuang, Huotang felt a surge of competitive desire.

The Shanghuang tribe's lineage is older than the Zhiyan tribe's. During the previous flood, the Shanghuang tribe's Heavenly Vein warriors came arrogantly twice, and he had been holding his breath for a long time.

...For most of the tribespeople, tribal life went on day after day, and the days passed quickly as they counted them down.

Five months have passed in the blink of an eye.

Thanks to the efforts of the clansmen, the first bumper harvest after the flood has arrived.

Unlike the wheat and millet of my previous life, the wheat and millet of the Great Wilderness World are many times larger, heavy and sinking down, with a much greater weight.

The reason it's called the harvest season is mainly because the harvesting period lasts a little longer.

The harvest has been underway for over two months now, and the fields outside the city are still a mix of golden yellow and yellowish-green.

Tanaka was crowded with clansmen harvesting wheat and millet every day.

Wheat and millet were drying on the city walls, houses, and even on the stone platforms and steps outside the ancestral temple.

Because the land was scattered and fragmented, Shen Can didn't know how many acres he had reclaimed in total.

Looking out from the mountain of the clan's territory, everywhere you look, from the mountaintop to the valley floor, is fields of wheat and millet.

The soil in the Great Wilderness is very fertile, and even the millet planted in the same season yields an unexpectedly high output, measured in the clan's containers, with a yield of between thirty and forty containers per mu.

Shen Can estimated that the container weighed around 100 jin (approximately 50 kg).

A mu of land may seem to yield a high output, but this is a vast wilderness. The land is different, the crops are different, and the tribesmen eat more. It's incomparable to the previous life.

Shen Can also contributed to the high yield per mu.

The tribespeople carried out his previous methods of weeding, breaking up clods of soil (using a hammer, mallet, or rake to break up the clumps of soil into fine soil), and using the witchcraft medicine he prepared to kill insects.

It is said that there are four seasons in the mountains and different weather every ten miles, but this millet field is not even more than ten miles in size, yet the growth cycle of wheat and millet has gone through several stages.

Some were harvested in less than three months, while others remained green for a full six months.

Shen Can hadn't expected such a planned approach, with the ripening process done in batches, allowing several fruits and leaves to ripen at a time.

Even though he has farming roots in his family, he has never seen a situation that is so completely out of step with the growth cycle.

He also consulted the clan elders, who only knew in general terms that it was good to store supplies during the cold season and to plant crops after the cold had passed.

Whether the general approach to responding to the changing seasons, the autumn harvest, and the winter storage is due to the fact that the Zhiyan region is too small to inherit the solar terms, or whether there was never any related development, can only be determined in the future.

At the edge of the field, Shen Can greeted his clansmen with a cheerful smile, and casually patted the head of a baby who came over.

These children, carrying small wicker baskets specially woven by their mothers, were picking millet ears in the field.

Under the same conditions, wheat and millet mature at different times, leading him to suspect that the problem lies in the soil, and he plans to investigate further.

After another month or so, the wheat and millet were finally harvested.

Although the harvest spanned a long period, it was still a bumper harvest, the largest in the history of the tribe, and it was worth celebrating.

"The hunting party is back!"

On the city wall, several children saw a group of people returning and immediately started shouting loudly.

Towards the end of the harvest season, Huotang would send people out hunting.

A group of dozens of people returned, some dragging and some carrying their prey.

At the very front, a comatose and unconscious mythical mountain-splitting Kui was supported by a wooden frame.

This wild beast has two crescent-shaped horns on its head and a single black-striped horn on its nose.

As the hunting party entered the city, members of various clans emerged from their dwellings.

The child carried his small wicker basket on his back, which contained the large ears of wheat and sorghum that he had selected from the field during the harvest.

The first harvest after the floods, besides the hunting of wild animals.

The more important offerings were these large ears of wheat and millet.

"Ancestral worship!"

The horn of the fire rang out again.

This time, Shen Can did not come out of the ancestral temple first.

Huotang stood on the stone platform outside the ancestral temple.

"Thanks to the protection of our ancestors, I, Zhiyan, survived the floods and plagues and ushered in a bumper harvest."

"Today, we pay homage to our ancestors at Lie Lie Shan Kui, and the whole clan holds a joint sacrifice."

"I solemnly declare to our ancestors that our illustrious lineage continues, our sacrifices are unbroken, and our descendants endure!"

　While researching for this chapter, I learned that on Java Island, due to volcanic eruptions, rice can be harvested nine times in two years—that's incredible!

　　In some parts of Vietnam, it's already quite enviable that there are places where crops can be harvested three or four times a year.

　　As for the issue of measuring yield per mu, the ancient 'stone' will still be used. However, since Zhiyan is isolated from the other tribes of the Great Wilderness, and the Great Wilderness does not have a unified system of weights and measures, the 'container' will be used temporarily as a substitute. As exchanges with other tribes occur, the measuring instruments will gradually be standardized.
　　Why wasn't there a unified system of weights and measures? Just like during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, each state had its own standards, and even the written language was different. Qin Shi Huang's greatness is evident simply from his unification of the written language and system of weights and measures.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)